A Message from the Club President

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Welcome to the 2009/2010 Rotary year and the self-proclaimed "Top Gun" club.  You might ask what it takes to be a "Top Gun" club and here is what I think it takes to be a true Top Gun.  First, you don't have to be the biggest/smallest, richest/poorest, oldest/newest or most/least notorious club in Rotary.  You have to be effective (in Top Gun parlance - you have to be able to make the kill)!  You have to be able to get it done (sometimes a Top Gun will be outmanned, outgunned and overwhelmed, but he succeeds)!  You have to be innovative and flexible (a Top Gun thinks outside the box, and WINS)!

So what makes the Rotary Club of Rohnert Park-Cotati (RCRPC) a "Top Gun" club?  We have been very effective over the last year completing 9 local community projects, funding several international projects, supporting 3 Interact clubs in local schools, providing scholarships for local high school seniors, earned more individual honors (at the District level) for a small club than any other club in the District and all the while remaining the "funnest club" in the District.  We have been able to "get it done" by putting our hands and personal resources to work - not by just writing checks.  We have been innovative and flexible as demonstrated by going to Social Networking channels to inform and recruit young people in our community and by one of our members working one-on-one with a Rotarian in Mexico to complete a project that couldn't be funded through normal Rotary channels.

Earning Top Gun and maintaining Top Gun however are quite different.  Cheering your past, basking in the glow of your accomplishments and proclaiming your successes are part of the formula to being a PAST Top Gun.  For every Top Gun there are 10, 20, 30 or more waiting (in the wings or "on the runway") who can only hope those at the top pause and admire their accomplishments long enough so that a new Top Gun can "drop onto their six, key the mike and say ‘rat-a-tat-tat your dead'." 

As the reigning Top Gun club, I challenge each and every member (and potential member) to look ahead, build on our strengths and never think it can't be done! Let's "Take it to the danger zone."